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Mobile Email Marketing: Tips For The Holiday Season

‘Tis the season when the volume of email sends begins to soar. From Black Friday previews to last minute gift reminders, retailers are upping the ante on the number of messages being sent. This makes the inbox a crowded place to be.

But that’s not news. What makes this retail holiday season special? This year over 30% of those messages will likely be read on some type of mobile device. So how do you ensure your message will stand out in the mobile inbox?

Even if you haven’t been able to transition your emails into a responsive template or you’re waiting to roll out that new mobile strategy in 2013, there are still a few mobile-smart techniques at your disposal.

First Steps: 3 Things To Do Today

1. Set To Scale For iOS Devices

This seems like a simple thing to do, but some retailers still ignore this detail. Including this strategic line of code (see below) will ensure that your HTML and text scale for iPhones’ and iPads’ viewable screen sizes.

<style> html {webkit-text-size-adjustment:none;}

2. Optimize Your Pre-header Message

Most mobile inboxes pull in the first 70-72 characters of copy from the region above the header. Use this as an opportunity to complement your holiday subject line by either continuing to tell the story or providing actionable opportunities. You can call out benefits, highlight offers and include a clear call to action.

3. Prioritize For Holiday Shopping Activity

Customers are on the move: a recent comScore study showed that 4 out of 5 were using smartphones while they shop. That’s a great reason to add a mobile-friendly banner that makes it easy to find store information. You can take that one step further and call out your store locations in the subject line.

Also, ensure holiday-specific content is visible in the first 300 pixels of the email, making it more likely to appear in the mobile preview pane.

Deeper Dive: 3 Things To Do Next

1. Adjust For Touch

The human finger needs more space than a mouse to accomplish the same action. (About 45 pixels, on average.) Craft your content so that calls-to-action are easy to see and easy to touch. Don’t frustrate users with too many crowded elements. That’s a recipe for unintentionally clicking on the wrong area, also known as “Fat Fingers.” Quick Tips:

Make buttons larger

Add more white space around hyperlinks

Assume all images will become calls-to-action

2. Design For Short Attention Spans

There’s a lot of competition for the mobile user’s interest, so keeping their attention is a challenge. Customers spend mere seconds scanning their inbox for snippets of interest. Organize content so that key points practically jumpout at them. Quick Tips:

Divide messages into clear sections

Use concise blocks of copy

Create flow with headers and images

3. Make It Easy To Read

Mobile messages are being viewed on small, backlit screens under various lighting conditions. Glare can be a problem. You should also combat the handheld “jiggle” factor by making your message as bold and legible as possible. Quick Tips:

The holiday season can be a challenging time to try new things, but now you have a few simple tips to help your messages grab attention in the mobile inbox. Good luck out there!

Some opinions expressed in this article may be those of a guest author and not necessarily Marketing Land. Staff authors are listed here.

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About The Author

Lynn Baus is a Creative Director with Responsys — a technology company with a focus on cross-channel digital direct marketing solutions. Over the last seven years she has created campaign for leading brands, which have been recognized industry wide for their high creative standards and campaign performance.

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Excellent advice Lynn and super relevant given that Black Friday online sales were up nearly 24% with 14.4% of purchases made from mobile phones according to IBM’s benchmark service.

http://twitter.com/lynnbausmktg Lynn Baus

Thanks Rick! So glad you found it helpful.

http://twitter.com/seo_george George LaRochelle

Great article with some very nice examples. Your first one has me a little confused though. In the first thing to do Today you mention you should use

html {webkit-text-size-adjustment:none;}

But that means that the text will NOT resize on iOS devices. Do you mean set it to auto instead of none so it WILL resize and make it easier to read on iOS devices?

Thanks

http://www.facebook.com/erin.lindsey1 Erin Winfrey

Got a kick out of the reminder that people use their fingers instead of a mouse to navigate and clicking areas should be larger. I hate it when sites send out e-mails and they don’t keep that in mind. I use Campayn.com to send e-mails out for my blog and love that they have already adapted their templates to counteract the ‘mobile question’

http://twitter.com/lynnbausmktg Lynn Baus

Greetings George! Sorry for the delay, I just now saw your question. I understand the confusion. I’ll explain in more detail. iOS devices automatically adjust text size to 13px, this can cause the email layout to break especially around pre-headers and footers. By setting the CSS code to “none” we are overriding iOS’s default 13 pixel font size for iPhones and iPads and instead using the inline CSS font-size style which would fit with the design.

Guest

Thanks Lynn

http://twitter.com/seo_george George LaRochelle

Thanks Lynn

http://www.buraq-technologies.com/ ambreen11

Awesome post on mobile email marketing tips for the holiday season. I agree with your points you have here really very well. Thanks